Private property and decent housing, two fundamental rights

Housing is the primary concern of citizens. The rise in prices seems unstoppable. A European Council report reflects the severity of the housing crisis in Barcelona. It is the second city on the continent with the most expensive rents in relation to salaries. Its citizens must spend 74% of their average salary to pay for an apartment in the city center. Only Lisbon surpasses it.

The shortage of supply, which is growing below the pace of demand, and low interest rates, which have made mortgages cheaper, only increase prices. And this raises market barriers for families looking for a place to live and for young people who aspire to become independent but whose salaries do not allow them. Solutions are needed, and some should be emergency solutions. Some have already been implemented, such as emancipation loans, but more are needed. The housing need does not have enough fuel to wait for the implementation of government plans to expand a public housing stock that has been abandoned for years. Others, such as limiting price increases to stressed areas, have slowed the rises, but this has coincided with a shift in supply toward seasonal rentals or rooms, activities that are not regulated.

For all these reasons, and aside from tax penalties for large landlords who trade apartments as if they were commodities, President Salvador Illa has opened the door to more daring initiatives, such as prohibiting the purchase of homes for speculation, following the demands of the CUP (Coup d'Unity). But with caution. There are two fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution that are at stake: the right to private property and inheritance (Article 33) and the right to decent housing and the obligation of public authorities to promote the conditions and regulations to make it effective (Article 47). "I have opened myself up to studying everything. Now, studying it means studying it. We are already studying new measures like the ones you propose here today, and we must be certain that they are viable and effective, and if we have it, we will communicate it," Illa said.

In any case, this is not a whim. A report commissioned by the Barcelona Metropolitan Strategic Plan (PEMB) and prepared by jurist Pablo Feu, an expert in administrative and urban planning law and professor at the University of Barcelona, ​​​​proposes this option, as is done in Amsterdam. The report believes it is legally viable, but only in areas declared to have a stressed residential market, and on an exceptional, territorial, and temporary basis.

The report includes measures to ensure balance and proportionality. One would be to allow the purchase of entire buildings, but to use them for regular rentals. The other would allow the purchase of second homes in a different municipality than the usual one, even if it is in a stressed area, but only for personal use.

Solutions and legal sophistication are needed to prevent the protection of one fundamental right from affecting another. And continue working and, while preserving the right to private property, ensuring that Article 47 of the Constitution, the right to decent housing, becomes more a reality than mere words.